Focus on Politics

Labour's new PM and new minister this week dumped the contentious Three Waters policy in favour of a rebranded "Affordable Water".

Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announce the "Affordable Water" plan.

"I think we've nailed it. Honestly, there's a balance to strike here" - Kieran McAnulty

Labour's new PM and new minister this week dumped the contentious Three Waters policy in favour of a rebranded "Affordable Water".

A not-so-subtle attempt to take the heat off and reclaim the narrative, they drove home the message of cheaper rates - but critics have continued to attack the plan as a new veneer of paint over the same unpopular plan.

Listen to the full podcast

It's nearly three years since Labour first unveiled its Three Waters Reforms. Subsequently bogged down in fierce debate over co-governance and asset theft and hampered by a failure to clearly communicate why the reforms were needed, the government this week set out to sell their renewed vision.

Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty - appointed less than three months earlier by incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins - was tasked with reviewing the plan to take water services management away from councils, and hand it to four mega-entities.

His solution was a more fragmented and regional approach with 10 entities, and a start date pushed back by two years to mid-2026. With it came the long-awaited explanation of why change was needed.

"Here's the guts of it," McAnulty began, in his trademark blokey style, "up to $180 billion local councils need to find and they can't do it by themselves because councils individually are at their debt cap - or if they're not, their communities can't afford to pay any higher rates.

"If they try to work together through a CCO (council controlled organisation) like Wellington Water, there's a limit to that because the debt that councils hold on their balance sheet still stays there, and if they try and do shared services it doesn't allow councils to be able to borrow the money they need to be able to fund this."

Read more:

Govt's Three Waters revamp: 10 entities, two year delay

Political editors panel: Three Waters gets a revamp

Labour and National continue to debate the numbers…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Police Minister is a tough gig: focusing on social issues leads to 'soft-on-crime' criticism while going too hard can look like populism.

"I am absolutely committed to improving community safety" - Ginny Andersen

Police Minister is a tough gig: focusing on social issues leads to 'soft-on-crime' criticism while going too hard can look like populism.

With four ministers in eight months it's ended up a hot-potato portfolio for Labour, and the latest appointee Ginny Andersen has only been in Cabinet since February - raising a few eyebrows.

She evidently wanted the role and says she's more than capable of steadying the ship, but the law-and-order focused opposition will be eager to test her mettle in an election year: she will have her work cut out for her.

Listen to the full podcast

Stuart Nash was Labour's police minister from 2017 to 2020, overseeing police during the firearms reforms, the Whakaari White Island response, and first few months of the Covid pandemic.

Jacinda Ardern changed tack in her second term - bringing Poto Williams into the role - but by mid-2022 the opposition was landing too many "soft on crime" blows. Williams - soon to announce her retirement from politics anyway - was shuffled out in favour of Ardern's Mr Fix-it Chris Hipkins to take a much harder line.

But Hipkins was a natural successor as prime minister when Ardern resigned in January, and chose to take police full circle - back to Nash, who had coveted the role.

Nash's second stint lasted less than two months however, after his cavalier approach to Cabinet rules was exposed. The fallout from his indiscretions eventually led to his dismissal from Cabinet entirely and continues to bedevil Labour.

Few from Hipkins' front bench seemed keen to step up after Nash's resignation, but Ginny Andersen - the MP for his neighbouring electorate of Hutt South - who he'd only just elevated to Cabinet with the Seniors, Small Business, and Digital Economy and Communications portfolios - put her hand up.

Read more:

Police 'Tactical Response Model' being rolled out nationwide…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

National's leader Christopher Luxon ditched Parliament for the playground this week, touring schools to sell his party's solution to declining student performance with a back-to-basics focus on literacy and numeracy.

"We're going to do maths, reading, writing and science and prioritise those things over everything else" - Christopher Luxon

National's leader Christopher Luxon ditched Parliament for the playground this week, touring schools to sell his party's solution to declining student performance with a back-to-basics focus on literacy and numeracy.

Teacher unions have criticised the plan, but the party was unlikely to ever get their backing - instead targeting concerned parents and his political opponent, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.

Listen to the full podcast

With Parliament in recess, National and Labour's leaders took this week to brush up on their campaigning skills with a jaunt back to the classroom.

Labour's Chris Hipkins took a trip down memory lane with a visit to his old primary school on Wednesday, where he was grilled by kids eager to find out what naughtiness got him sent to the principal's office all those years ago.

National's Christopher Luxon managed to stop in at four schools throughout the week, but it was him asking the questions - quizzing children on their future aspirations.

He talked a lot about the decline in New Zealand students' academic achievement - a trend which has frustrated teachers, parents, children and decision-makers alike - and which could put those aspirations at risk.

Read more:

Luxon details National's primary school curriculum policy

Union and Labour criticise National's new curriculum policy

Secondary and area school teachers to strike next week

Hipkins and Luxon hit the road: A taste of campaign 2023

Fully prescribed curriculum not the answer to problems in education - expert

National Party plans to rewrite school curriculum if elected

'Over-worked, over-stressed, under-paid': Striking teachers make voices heard

RNZ's education correspondent John Gerritsen says there are three main measures of the school system's level of achievement - and for all three, the trends are indeed bad.

As an example, the OECD-based PISA tests 15-year-olds on maths, science, and reading every three years and measures their results against about 79 other countries…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Stuart Nash's rapid resignation from his treasured police portfolio - just two months after getting it back - is one of the clearest examples of a political own-goal.

"I completely stuffed up" - Stuart Nash

Stuart Nash's rapid resignation from his treasured police portfolio - just two months after getting it back -  is one of the clearest examples of a political own-goal.

It's highlighted poor ministerial judgement - as well as wider problems Labour has in the law-and-order space.

Listen to the full podcast

It was a dream start to the week for Labour on Monday, with a positive poll and a policy purge which seized the political agenda. By midweek, however, attention had firmly shifted to the sudden removal of Stuart Nash as police minister - with no one to blame but himself.

Nash had messaged Newstalk ZB host Mike Hosking on Tuesday night with a request to talk gangs. He began their on-air chat the next day touting police statistics, but soon shifted to his general frustration with the judiciary over what he perceived as light sentences.

"There's been a couple of times when police have put these guys in front of judges," he said. "And actually, one I phoned up the police commissioner and said 'surely you're going to appeal this'.

"This bloke didn't have a licence, had illegal firearms, illegal ammunition and had guns without a licence - and got home detention. I think that was a terrible decision by the judge. Judges need to read the room on this."

Neither Nash nor Hosking seemed to think much of it and soon moved on to other things, but it was a spit-take moment for ACT leader David Seymour who was starting the day with a bowl of cornflakes.

The Cabinet Manual is clear: ministers must not criticise decisions of the court - not publicly, and especially not to the Police Commissioner who by law must remain independent when it comes to prosecutions.

Seymour was soon striding the press gallery corridors, and by the time Nash's event on Parliament's precinct - awarding space scholarships to five Kiwi students - finished, he was met by a pack of reporters.

Read more:

Stuart Nash demoted, now on 'final warning' - Hipkins

Political editors panel: Nash, policy purge, and polling

Nash faces more calls to step down over previous case of interference

Nash admits he 'stuffed up', wants to retain other portfolios…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Consultants and contractors are a favourite punching bag for opposition parties - of all colours - and National is just the latest to land a solid blow, leaving Labour off-balance.

"Under National, this gravy train's gonna stop at the station" - Christopher Luxon

Consultants and contractors are a favourite punching bag for opposition parties - of all colours - and National is just the latest to land a solid blow, leaving Labour off-balance.

The numbers show public service spending on consultants and contractors has recently surged, and the prime minister has largely left it to the sector's watchdog to mount a defence..

Listen to the full podcast

When Labour took office in 2017, the annual spend on consultants across the core public service - 35 ministries and departments - was about $900 million.

At the time, Chris Hipkins as State Services Minister was describing the situation as unsustainable: a contracting blow-out he blamed on National.

He pledged to cut back that spending - and it did level off for a time - but in the last year the figure has surged, topping $1.2 billion in the latest update.

National's leader Christopher Luxon, in his state of the nation address last Sunday, paired an early childhood education rebate policy with a $400m cost-saving plan to cut spending on consultants and contractors.

Luxon and his party have been critical of the public sector's spending on consultants and contractors.

Crunching the numbers, the party added in spending by Crown entities like Waka Kotahi and Kāinga Ora not included in core public service numbers, calculating a total bill of about $1.7 billion.

Either way it's up by about a third on like-for-like numbers - a sizeable increase. National reckons it can wind back the clock, returning the spend much closer to those 2017 levels.

National has been relentless in its attack, pursuing the subject every day in Parliament's debating chamber, select committee meetings, and in media interviews. The focus is strategic: National sees the public service as a vulnerability for Labour and for Hipkins especially.

Read more:

National MPs follow Luxon's line of attack on public service contractors

RNZ/TVNZ merger: Minister defends ongoing payments on scrapped project

Luxon says health comms staff 'a good place to start' in public service cuts…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

While National's solution to the Three Waters problem may please the councils steadfastly opposed to the government's plan, it remains plagued by a financial fishhook.

"Let's be honest here: the magical thinking doesn't work. Someone has to pay in the long run" - Bernard Hickey

The National Party has long promised to "repeal and replace" the government's Three Waters policy, and until last Saturday it was vague on the specifics.

While their new solution may please the councils steadfastly opposed to Labour's plan, it remains plagued by a financial fishhook.

But - as journalist Bernard Hickey warns - Labour's plan, under review again by Chris Hipkins' new administration, is no done deal and still faces some complex political and monetary hurdles.

Listen to the full podcast

With the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle still fresh, leader Christopher Luxon has unveiled their alternate plan to bring New Zealand's so-called Three Waters - drinking, storm and wastewater - infrastructure up to scratch.

Labour's plan would see councils' assets combined under four regional mega-entities, far enough removed from council control that they could borrow more, and more cheaply, than councils could alone.

These new organisations would be governed by boards, appointed by groups with a 50-50 split of Māori and council representatives: "co-governance".

National's proposal does away with that split, and leaves the assets under council control. Instead, councils would be required to ring-fence revenue for water services, meeting New Zealand's recently improved water quality standards while remaining financially sustainable.

National leader Christopher Luxon at Parliament. (file photo)

Luxon says the government would step in where councils fail to achieve this, although exactly what this looks like is unclear - including any bail-out solution which would only see taxpayers forking out, and at the proverbial bottom of the cliff.

And while councils are in control, their options are limited: higher rates would mean eye-watering costs for ratepayers, and many councils are already near their borrowing limits. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

While somewhat bound politically by Labour's promise of no new taxes this term, Finance Minister Grant Robertson is keeping all options open in his search for a way to fund the recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary floods.

"We can build back better, we can build back safer, and we can build back smarter, and we will do that by working together" - Chris Hipkins

To tax, to borrow, or to cut spending: those are the broad options facing Finance Minister Grant Robertson.

While somewhat bound politically by Labour's promise of no new taxes this term, Robertson's keeping all options open in his search for a way to fund the recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary floods.

It's the first big test for the pairing of Robertson with Prime Minister Chris Hipkins - and they will need to carefully balance the practicalities of on-the-ground response with longer-term preparation for future challenges - all while keeping faith with voters, many of them still traumatised by the crises.

Listen to the full podcast

More than a week on from the declaration of a national emergency, New Zealanders are coming to grips with the devastation wrought on homes and infrastructure, including key roading links that support economic supply chains.

Slash is blamed for much of the damage from Gabrielle, and it's just the latest of several events where that's been the case. Forestry Minister Stuart Nash has announced yet another inquiry into the matter, giving former National MP Hekia Parata a two-month timeframe to get it done. At least one industry boss is expecting major changes.

Communities in Hawke's Bay made vulnerable by the storm have also been raising concerns about rampant crime.

Hipkins tried to give reassurances of extra police in the area, and apparently low levels of reported crime - but that went down poorly with isolated residents left alone to patrol communities - some still without power and reliable communications.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins in Napier inspects a warehouse full of goods for donation.

Opposition parties have been critical, calling for more to be done like doubled sentences for offenders during a state of emergency, or bringing in the defence force to help police. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In this week's Focus on Politics, RNZ's political editor Jane Patterson parses the co-governance rhetoric of the past few weeks.

Co-governance, co-management, devolution: how political parties approach power-sharing with Māori has already become a central topic this year.

It's an important conversation - with a fundamental question at its core: is the current way of doing things delivering the best possible outcomes for all New Zealanders? You don't have to look far to see proof to the contrary.

As 2023 gears up towards the election, the debate seems destined to intensify - and it could again be Māori caught in the rhetorical crossfire.

Listen to the full podcast

The year began in dramatic fashion with the resignation of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the rapid installation of her replacement Chris Hipkins.

Rātana in late January is typically considered the start of the political calendar, but with the transition from Ardern already under way it marked her last official outing as prime minister, and Hipkins' first real test as successor - a symbolic handover of power.

Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins at Rātana.

Waitangi events about a week later are always a time for scrutiny of politicians. Those welcomed to Te Whare Rūnanga had been encouraged to keep the kōrero constructive and avoid politicising things.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said there was a lesson in that for the other parties present.

"I think those that chose not to respect that have to go back home and talk to themselves ... I think it was a good reminder for the Crown to honour Te Tiriti and where else best to do it than here?"

But politics always seem to come into consideration at Waitangi somehow.

Hipkins had already been challenged at the Iwi Chairs Forum over how his government would handle issues like co-governance. Opposition leader Christopher Luxon had been grilling Labour over the issue for months, saying they had failed to explain co-governance measures to the public.

Chris Luxon and Shane Reti at Waitangi.

Hipkins admitted the government could have done better, and would be working to in future. He said the word could mean different things in different contexts: there were examples of co-management in various Treaty settlements, for example, many of them negotiated under National.

Luxon says National does not support co-governance in public services specifically, and would instead pursue a kind of devolution.

"The point for me is the means by which we deliver those outcomes is a coherent public service system with massive innovation within it, delivering through community organisations," he told RNZ. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In this week's Focus on Politics, RNZ's political team interviews the leaders of National, ACT, the Greens, and Te Pāti Māori.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon

As the political year comes to an end, party leaders are looking forward to the summer break and pondering their approach to next year's election.

Last week, we heard from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about a year that's seen anti-government sentiment and economic turmoil on the rise. 

Listen to the full podcast

This week the man who wants her job, National's Christopher Luxon, expounds on the need in this political environment for bolder action than was seen under his National predecessors John Key and Bill English.

He fended off criticism of a dearth of policy, saying more will come in election year - and dismissed the gaffes made in his first year as leader, saying they are immaterial to the broader community.

Read more:

Jacinda Ardern: 'A challenging year'

Christopher Luxon: 'Rest assured, we will have policy'

James Shaw and Marama Davidson: 2022 went 'phenomenally well'

Keep an eye out this coming week for full write-ups of interviews with ACT's David Seymour, and Te Pāti Māori's Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi.

Luxon would - based on current polling - need ACT's David Seymour in a coalition to get into government.

Seymour stops short of directly criticising Luxon - saying he had been impressed with his performance - but ACT would be needed to hold National to the right wing of politics.

"There's so far nothing to indicate that Chris Luxon will be anything different from the last five incoming National Prime Ministers who've said a lot of very aggressive things about Labour's policies but also kept Labour's politics. The reason you vote ACT is that you don't think that's going to be good enough this time."

On the other side of the political spectrum are the Greens - regularly polling around or better than its result in 2020. The party has been in a strange position this term of being in partnership with a majority government - the first under MMP.

Co-leader James Shaw says the party wants more MPs at the Cabinet table "because that is where you get the most influence". However, he and co-leader Marama Davidson say they value being members of a party that's not comfortable with power. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A newly prioritised spending plan and fresh ministerial line-up are part of Labour's plan to reset the political landscape for the start of 2023 - election year.

A newly prioritised spending plan and fresh ministerial line-up are part of Labour's plan to reset the political landscape for the start of 2023 - election year.

The political headwinds are significant: a cost-of-living crisis only set to worsen; waning support for the governing party and its high profile leader; the murky dynamics of disinformation and social disunity swirling below.

"You're right to characterise it as a challenging year," says Jacinda Ardern, settling into a chair looking out over the sunny backyard at Premier House in a suitably festive red Juliette Hogan trouser suit.

Listen to the full podcast

It's a sharp contrast to the year the prime minister is here to reflect on, and the troubling times New Zealanders are warned to expect over the next few years.

"I'm also reminded that politics has always been about solving problems ... either anticipated or unanticipated," she says, acknowledging the "difficult issues" 2022 has thrown up.

"Our focus, though, has been ... finding the solutions - as complex as they may be - and making sure we demonstrate to New Zealand that that's where our focus is."

Spending priority list - what to keep, what to scrap - to be sharpened over summer break

With the Covid pandemic dragging into a third year, there has also been the global sucker punch of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

As the world tentatively was trying to find a way past Covid, it was hit with further political and economic shocks, more severe supply chain disruptions, and compounded cost of living pressures.

Labour has been trying to drive home the message those global events are the force behind much of the domestic challenges but they know as well as anyone it's the government voters look to for relief - or to blame.

The opposition has been gaining ground with relentless attacks about the cost of living, questioning the spending on projects like the health and polytechnic reforms, the proposed merger of RNZ and TVNZ, and - perhaps most controversial of all - the Three Waters infrastructure plan…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details